Day on Torts

July 22, 2005

Applications for Insurance Coverage

Have you ever got the feeling that the insurance company trying to sell you life insurance did not want you to tell the truth? Have you ever had an agent say “you don’t have to put that down?”

The questions on many applications are very difficult to understand. For instance, “Do you smoke?” I don’t consider myself a smoker in any shape, form or fashion, and no other sane person would. ( I have plenty of other vices, to be sure, but not this one.)

Nevertheless, I made the mistake of answering that question “Yes” 6 years ago because 2 or 3 times a year I used to smoke a cigar with the guys. I use the term “smoke” lightly – it would be more accurate to say that I allowed the cigar to burn between the index and middle finger of my hand while using my right hand to raise a Bombay Saffire on the rocks (two olives) to my parched lips.

July 21, 2005

Colin Farrell’s Right to Privacy

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

Colin Farrell does not want Nicole Narain, a former Playboy Miss January, to distribute a 15-minute video tape showing the two of them engaged in sexual activity.

They entered into an oral agreement to keep it private.

He alleges that she was about to market the tape, so he filed suit against her and her alleged potential co-distributors. Here is some (but not all) of the complaint. You can see a photograph of the defendant there, too.

July 20, 2005

Boston Scientific Stents

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

Boston Scientific makes stents. “Stents are tiny wire-mesh tubes used to prop open heart arteries after fatty deposits have been cleared away. The devices are inserted through blood vessels and deployed by a tiny balloon that is inflated, pushing the stent in place.” The company has had a problem with its Taxus line of stents, and did a voluntary recall this year.

An article in a frecent edition of the Wall Street Journal reported data from the FDA that at least 45 cases where it was reported that there were difficulties with balloon deflation and 86 cases in which balloons became stuck and were difficult to remove from patients. The problems resulted in three deaths and several injuries, the paper reported.

The FDA plans to take no action.

July 20, 2005

Lawsuit Filed Over Williamson County Shooting

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

Three teenage girls turned into the driveway of Mr. William Cherry around midnight because they were lost and low on gas. The driver says she turned into a driveway at the suggestion of the 911 dispatcher that she had called for help. Cherry, fearing that the occupants had come to rob him, allegedly fired a warning shot and then three shots that hit the car. Allegedly, the last two shots were fired as they were backing out of the driveway.

Mr. Cherry received pretrial diversion in a criminal case; the charges against him were reckless endangerment and aggravated assault.

The Tennessean now reports that the girls have sued him for emotional injuries arising from the incident. At least two of the girls have sought counseling.

July 19, 2005

Mike Price Strikes Back

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

I wrote last week about Mike Price’s lawsuit against Sport’s Illustrated for defamation, which arose after an article that stated that he engaged in sexual conduct with several women in a hotel in Florida. Price was fired from his job.

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has ordered the defendant to reveal a source after Mike Price’s attorney does some additional due diligence to learn the identity of the source on his own. An article reports that “the ruling would compel attorneys defending SI’s parent company, Time Inc., to tell the court if writer Don Yaeger’s sources lie under oath to shield either their identities or the degree to which they contributed to Yaeger’s story.”

The 11th Circuit determined that “Alabama’s shield law specifically excludes magazines from privileges the law extends to newspapers, television and radio. Alabama’s media shield law, enacted in 1935 for newspapers, was extended to include radio and TV reporters in 1949, but magazines specifically were excluded from protections afforded by the statute language.”

July 19, 2005

Guidant Corp Issues New Warning – Now Pacemakers

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

Guidant has shared more information about problems with some of its pacemakers. A news article reports that “the Indianapolis-based company, which last month recalled almost 109,000 defibrillators, released a warning that said a sealing component in the pacemakers had degraded in some cases, resulting in higher-than-normal moisture in the devices and possible malfunction.”

The models at issue are: Pulsar Max, Pulsar, Discovery, Meridian, Pulsar Max II, Discovery II, Virtus Plus II, Intelis II and Contak TR. The devices have not been implanted in patients in about four years.

There are about 18,000 of the pacemakers still implanted in patients. About 88,000 of the defibrillators remain in patients.

July 19, 2005

Update on the Vioxx Trial

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

Here is an update on the first Vioxx trial, as reported by the New York Times.

July 19, 2005

Revengegate

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

OK, I know that it is off topic but I can’t help myself.

First, the President said that he would “take care” of anyone who violated the law concerning leaking information about a CIA agent.

Yesterday, the President said he would fire anyone convicted of a crime concerning the matter.

July 18, 2005

New Legislation Raises Issue of “Specialty Courts”

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

A bill has been introduced in Congress to fund pilot projects in several states to test the idea of special “health courts.”

An article on the bill says that “[t]he bill would authorize the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services to award up to 10 demonstration grants to states for the development, implementation and evaluation of alternatives to current tort litigation for resolving disputes over medical errors. Within that context, the bill specifically authorizes the creation of a special health care court. The hallmark of such a court would be full-time judges with health care expertise, whose sole focus would be on addressing medical malpractice cases.”

Here is a copy of the bill.

July 17, 2005

FDA Scientists Moonlight for Drug Companies?

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

In Tennessee, a product that complies with government standards is presumed not to be defective or unreasonably dangerous.

So, you can understand why those of us who represent consumers injured by products are more than a little concerned by this news report. The NYT reports that “[f]orty-four government scientists have violated ethics rules on collaborating with pharmaceutical companies….”

Some of the scientists may have violated criminal laws.